Special consideration A levels and university admissions

[mrsrhodgilbert]

Dd2 is about to sit her A2s. We have a fair bit of anxiety going on in our household at the moment. Next week will be the first anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis and I will be tested again to check for a recurrence. The results could take up to three weeks. Last year the diagnosis came 5 days before her AS exams started, I didn't tell her until her exams were over which meant a couple of very difficult weeks trying to pretend nothing was wrong. She knows I have to have a mammogram next week and got quite upset at school on Thursday. After a discussion with the pastoral officer it was suggested to us that they would be happy to apply for special consideration for her because of the stress. We haven't decided what to do and obviously hope I'll be fine and she will relax.

What we didn't tell the school was that her uncle is in the latter stages of bowel cancer and quite honestly we don't know what the next few weeks hold and his daughter, dds cousin, was diagnosed with the same two weeks ago, major surgery yesterday. It's all a bit difficult in our household at the moment.

Finally to my question, we will talk to school again properly about whether or not to apply for the exam dispensation. Anyone with any experience of this? But on an old thread I found a suggestion that it might be worth warning the university of choice that the student is experiencing an unusually stressful time. Not to make excuses, I don't want to give her unfair advantage, but would a university be vaguely interested/ bothered about this?

Mrsrhodgilbert you've had a rough year but I'm so glad your scan was clear. I'm sitting here watching an orange man talking about antiques whilst DD18 is plugged into her headphones revising for her biology A2. Since jan this year we've lost my mum and I've had a fairly serious neurological condition. Thank god I'm on the mend but it's made her grow up and I do wonder if it's had an effect on her. In fairness she's working so hard and is on course to get AAC but should the uni's be told the amount of stress she's been under? I hadn't given it any thought until I saw your post which is daft of me. I'd love to hear your thoughts and sorry to hijack your post.

Ps I'm also a mad interfering parent but isn't that our job?

Hi lolimax, I'm sorry to hear you too are having a difficult year. This all started because dd got very upset at school a couple of weeks ago and we got involved with the sixth form support team.When I started thinking about this I looked up the qualifying reasons for applying for special consideration in exams, it's readily available and quite precise. There are various levels of special consideration, depending on the nature if the issues. I figured our circumstances fitted.

School were very open to applying,in fact they suggested it, apparently we would need to write a letter explaining what has happened and how it has affected her, it doesn't have to be done until after the exams. We haven't decided whether to apply or not, we will see what the exact circumstances are at exam time.

I spoke to school again this morning and they were also very keen to inform the university directly which I have now done. They might do the same after the exams. I'd say school were perhaps a little too keen actually and I got the impression this is something they do a lot which worries me a bit. I did get the impression that she thought our case was at the more deserving end of the spectrum of what they are asked to speak up for.

I suppose speaking to her sixth form would be the place to start, I have the impression it's something they are very familiar with. If you believe your dd might not perform as well as she might, because of what's happended to you and her grandmother then I would consider it. I get the impression people ask for special consideration with far less serious issues, reading between the lines.

Hi mrsrhodgilbert. Quick update. I mentioned it to DD who at first pulled a face (she has anxiety issues) but when I read out the thread she understood. She mentioned it to her tutor in college this morning who thought it was a good idea so I've rung her to leave a message to see the best way to do this. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention. And I hope life for you and yours gets easier. Xx

I work at Russell Group University and we would definitely want to know. Saying that we would onyl really consider it if the exam board had been notified too- and notifying us BEFORE the exams helps too.

Maybe send to central Admissions office/Registry rather than the Dept - in our ase we would tell the Dept the circumstances but the results come into us first so we would attach it to the results and send thewhole lot to Dept if she didn't quite hit her offer and they needed to look again.

Poor you all though, sounds utterly awful for all of you

Hi codandchips I think both unis are Russell Group and though tutor is lovely I think it would be down to me to do the contacting (brain damage minimal now fully with it thankfully!). Can you let me know exactly what to do please? Thanks so much.

I would just write to the exam board and the uni saying exactly what you have said here, and how/why you think it may affect/have affected her (ie stress, difficulty concentrating/revising etc). Just ask for it to be kept on her file - much better than waiting for the results, seeing they are not as good as hoped and only then notifying the institution of the possible disruption.

Poor you too, must be a tough time for you all :(

mrsrhod
I'm pretty sure that DS2 got a small allowance in his A2s as his Grandfather died just before they started. I'm not sure whether he has requested special consideration anything on his current (MSc) course - though I'm sure he could since he has leukaemia and I have cancer.
I saw a snipey comment earlier in the thread - I know that children are very affected by their parents' illnesses and I can imagine your daughter is more affected than she would ever let you know.

MrsRhod & all other mums having a tough time personally & with young going through AS/A2's

Hi lily, nice to see you away from our usual place. I'm not sure I knew your son has leukaemia. I'm so sorry to hear that, goodness, what a lot some people have to cope with.

Cod, are you suggesting writing to the exam board as an additional thing to applying for special consideration? I have never heard of that before. I'm very wary of overkill here.

There seems to be some confusion about whether to inform an individual tutor, a dept admissions office or central admissions. I guess many of you work for different universities and you all operate differently. For now I'm going to stick with what I've done, I may forward the email on next week.

If you pm me I can say what uni I work for in case it's one of ours. I guess by applying for special consideration the exam board is informed, just whether it's you or school that does? I would go with what your school recommends tbh

Cod, I'll narrow it down, it's in Yorkshire.

I would also think about defering a place as uni can be tough at first especially if your daughters feeling fragile and worried about her family.

Aah, I'm dahn sarf, but would recommend contacting the adminnsion office for starters

Good luck

I am wondering as you have mentioned that your DD has anxiety issues whether she is ready for university? Perhaps defer a year?

My DS is hopefully going in Sept but he is more than ready. Goes to a boarding school, gets himself around London and is planning a trip around Europe in July.